Cousin Entropy

By Michèle Laframboise

"...a far-flung space opera reminiscent of Liu Cixin's book."

  -- Alex Shvartsman, Future SF

 

True to the laws of thermodynamics, the expanding universe keeps cooling down. Now, the last transformed humans linger near the black hole at the center of our Galaxy.

The UnAttached, who count their age in billions of years, feed on the powerful X-ray emissions and rail against Entropy, that selfish cousin who sucks leftover energy. The Attached, recently forced to leave their ruined worlds, live too fast.

As the stars around them wink off one by one like in a dying city, what can they hope for ?

 

A short and crunchy hard-SF story that goes far, far in the future, told by multi-award winning author Michèle Laframboise, translated from the French by N. R. M. Roshak.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Echofictions
• Release date: Sep 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781988339849

Michèle Laframboise

A science-fiction lover since childhood, Michèle Laframboise has written 17 novels and more than 30 short-stories, in French and English. Her short-stories have been published in Solaris, Galaxies, Géante Route, Brins d’Éternité, Tesseracts and a few other anthologies.  Some of her works were translated in Italian, German and Russian. Michèle is also a comic enthusiast who drew a dozen of graphic novels. As a science-fiction writer, she endeavors to find creative solutions to the many challenges that lay before us. / Michèle Laframboise est une ex-scientifique devenue auteure de science-fiction. Elle a publié 17 romans et une trentaine de nouvelles, récoltant plusieurs distinctions et prix littéraires. Ses nouvelles ont été publiées dans les revues Solaris, Galaxies, Géante Route, Brins d’Éternité, Tesseracts et d’autres anthologies. Elle a été traduite en italien, en allemand et en russe. Dessinatrice enthousiaste, elle a aussi publié une douzaine de BD. Sa science fiction cherche toujours des solutions créatives aux défis qui nous attendent

Book preview

Cousin Entropy

Praise for Michèle Laframboise

"Cousin Entropy" has a wonderfully Stapledonian scope… This is absolutely charming hard SF (not a usual pairing of adjective and subgenre.)

Karen Burhnam, Locus Magazine

The physics feels meticulously researched, and this is an original and interesting reflection on the way things might go.

Kat Day, Tangent Online

Cousin Entropy… mixes pure sense of wonder with hard science, exploring the universe and a far, far future of humanity with imagination, kindness, and wisdom.

Simone Heller, SFF writer & translator. Eugie Foster Memorial Award winner. Sturgeon & Hugo finalist.

Cousin Entropy

A story at the end of the Universe

Michèle Laframboise

Translated by

N. R. M. Roshak

Echofictions

© Copyright 2021 by N. R. M. Roshak, original French text copyright 2017 by Michèle Laframboise.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Translated by N. R. M. Roshak

Cover design by Echofictions

Cover pics by NASA / Galaxies colliding

Dessins intérieurs : Michèle Laframboise

Author portrait by Frédéric Gagnon

This is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to real persons or events is coincidental.

Publisher:

Echofictions logo

Echofictions.com

Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

ISBN 978-1-988339-84-9 (ebook)

ISBN 978-1-988339-85-6 (print)

Contents

Cousin Entropy

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Michèle Laframboise

Yearning for More?

Cousin Entropy

Sometimes I think that all God did to create our universe